Monterey Bay Aquarium

Between two nights of sealion choruses grunting us to sleep, we went to the aquarium. The main exhibit (the window into Monterey Bay was closed, and although most of the other exhibits were great, we all agreed that Vancouver Aquarium is just as great, though a little different, and sad that the mammals have such small enclosures. It was nice to watch the wild otters, seals, sealions and humans from the deck of the aquarium Monterey.

On our way!

The first section we explored was the "cannery". The aquarium is on Cannery Row, and it was nice to have the opportunity to learn about not only the history, but also the practical workings and ecological considerations of fisheries.

The aquarium has a beautiful seahorse exhibit.

(Including these miniscule baby seahorses, pictured here much larger than life!)

The albatross talk (with friendly captive assistant) was quite interesting.

Predatory hand-barnacles!

Wild sea otter having a crab for lunch.

A lot of lovely birds in a pretty small enclosure. Spoonbills, flamingos, ibis, herons, etc.

Yes I know it looks like I'm grabbing him, and Rhiannon chided me for it, but I wasn't - honestly. The sociable bat rays are really rather unbelievable. They swim right out of the water to look us in the eyes, and seem really to enjoy being petted. As I reached out to stroke this passerby, it lifted its fin right up into my hand and swooshed through like, well... like a fish.

One of the penguins was also rather sociable. Most of its family and compatriots sat up on the rock having meetings; this one kept coming back for visits with the gawking humans.

Bridges

We thought Seattle was the City of Bridges. Well it rather is. Seems to be a futuristic snarl of multi-level twisting ribbonous concrete, buildings poking up here and there as if they're fighting the freeways for space.

Well if Seattle is the city of Bridges, then the San Francisco Bay is the land of driving over water. Never mind the Golden Gate. It's nice, OK. But today I had a MAMA interview in Oakland, before we drove south, which necessitated traveling on 2 other bridges: the San Rafael and the San Mateo. Wow. We spent a lot of time driving over water. Miles and miles of driving over water.

Toward Richmond-San Rafael bridge.

IN Richmond-San Rafael bridge.

On the road that might as well be a bridge of it's own, on the way to the San Mateo Bridge. Yes that's right: you can't SEE the other side!

Finally reaching the San Mateo Bridge, which is nothing compared to the miles of water-skimming road we'd just traveled.

San Francisco!!

Drove into San Francisco on a foggy morning, just to be sure we had the full experience!!

So many people seem to bring up the Golden Gate Bridge in conversation. At least now we can nod knowingly instead of blankly!

First stop: Maritime Museum. The main gallery upstairs was under renovation, though.

As usual, Markus found something to study to help him make boat-building decisions.

Then we went out to the real boats, where we put the kids to work.

Hard work, but futile work, too.

...meanwhile back at the museum, some rather diminutive plastic sailors worked in perfect unison at their own job...

Then we walked down Haight Street,

filled Mama's shopping quota at Love of Ganesha,

had a snack at a lovely little cafe that was full of interesting books, and packed it in for the day.

Day 2: back to the Haight: visited some mural-creatures,

... ... ...

and eventually found ourselves in Golden Gate Park, having an up-close communion with our first palm tree.

Markus seems to find oaks wherever we go!

We hung around on Hippie Hill for a while, visited the playground, and eventually wound our way back out of the park, again.

We had lunch in the dunes while watching surfers and sand-movers coaxing the dunes off the Great Highway and back onto the beach. What makes the highway Great in San Francisco? We weren't sure. But obviously it must be.

So we took it back to Mill Valley again.

The Mill Valley Inn

I wanted to stay in Mill Valley because this is where my mother lived, as a child. Thankfully, we were offered accommodation by the Mill Valley Inn, and glad to be there. Mill Valley has changed quite a bit since the mid-to-late 50's, when my mother lived there. It's an upscale town, now, and the Mill Valley Inn pretty much lives up to that standard.

It's a concrete building that spirals up around what could be a courtyard, but is instead the inn's parking garage. This is maybe not the most elegant view upon exiting a room, but open and interesting, and preferable to the small hallways of most hotels we've seen. The room we have is small, but beautifully decorated with old and/or distressed wooden furniture, amazingly high ceilings, and with gorgeous French doors opening to the town. MVI is the first place we've visited that does not have a Bible in the room. We like this.

Breakfast is all self-serve, but definitely better than the 3-star accommodations we've stayed at, with more and varied fruit options, average sweet/white breads, reasonably healthy cereals, and make-your-own waffles. Self-serve coffee and tea (a nice assortment!) are available, but so are various espresso and steamed-milk beverages, from the kitchen. An open wine-and-cheese reception is held every afternoon in the breakfast room, and I assume that the doors are opened to the patio in better weather (it's raining while we're there).

Although the inn as a whole is clean and quite comfortable, when we asked for a mattress or cot for the children, who were sleeping on the floor, we were given a very old, stained mattress with a sheet over it. This is by far not the worst thing we've seen in hotels on this trip, but not really up to the standard the Mill Valley Inn has set for itself. I am going to assume it was just a glitch.

On the whole, MVI is a lovely, calm, quiet place to stay, close enough to San Francisco without needing to be in the urban madness, and a good place to relax, if you can afford it. It's a great place for an afternoon bit of Asterix-reading:

Bad plants, good plants, and a healing crescent moon.

Today was our trip from Mendocino to Mill Valley. We harvested some eucalyptus before leaving the Mendocino area, and hung it around the ceiling of our car to decorate our ride! Although it smells great, eucalyptus is an invasive weed, wreaking havoc on various US wildernesses. Eucalyptus depletes groundwater needed for indigenous plants, takes over and changes habitats, thus vastly reducing habitat for many plants and animals, and can carry deadly spores. It seems to be everywhere in california, in the towns, in the parks, and in conservation areas, but thankfully it is not able to withstand our winters, and has not taken over up here, yet. But wait! ArborGen has now received federal permission to introduce vast quantities of its genetically modified eucalypti (designed to withstand cold climate) across the US south, in an "experiment". It seems taking over one latitude with invasive, destructive weeds isn't enough. There have been a few petitions out in an attempt to stop this insanity. Sign if you care: http://www.globaljusticeecology.org/petition.php

And here is one wilderness that is now threatened by the Eucalyptus:

Look up. Under, behind, around, and sometimes even above those Sequoias are Eucalyptus. Everywhere.

We drove south to Mill Valley, arriving just in time to see the moon reach its full-sickle brightness, and to take a post-car-sickness walk under its light. It's hard to see ecological devastation anywhere, especially in treasures like the redwood forests, but somehow the timlessness of the moon is reassuring. When humans are gone, and redwoods, and even ArborGen, the moon will look down on this place, crawling with some unfathomable assortment of super-hardy plants and animals, and keep on shining. We try to let the sadness we witness be a lesson but not a downer. Tomorrow we're going to try to find human love in San Francisco.

(I like my camera.)

The Inn at Schoolhouse Creek

Lilies by the koi pond.

One of the MAMA Project sponsors was the Inn at Schoolhouse Creek, run by Maureen and Steve. They put us up in a fully wheelchair-equipped cabin (ramp, accessible bathroom with shower seat, etc), that had one king-sized bed with a sumptuous mattress, and a day-bed with an extra trundle bed to pull out. We were a bit in heaven! A gas fireplace kept us warm despite the unfortunate chilly weather, and for extra heat we all got in the giant jacuzzi tub in the cabin and had a soak. The Inn, a collection of cottages, is nestled among quite a few large cypress trees, just a short distance from the ocean.

Note the disappointment on the left. She returned the deed on her next turn.

Outdoor amenities include a hot tub, hammocks, a giant chess set, and pooch-parking for guests whose companions would like to be close-by during meals. They feed the birds every morning during breakfast, for guests' entertainment. And breakfast was really great. It consisted of self-serve baked goods, toast, cereals, etc. and options for various delicious hot meals (omelets, french toast, pancakes, fritatta, etc.) from the kitchen. They also made an effort to cater to our children's allergies. Options to bring breakfast back to the cabin or for dinner, later, are also available.

We didn't have our dear Hazel with us to make use of the pooch parking, but we saw another dog waiting patiently there during one of our breakfasts.

The Creekside Restaurant!

Birds and a chipmunk having their breakfast.

Breakfast time!